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The Original and Printer's Manuscript

In early 2013, our Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies sponsored three lectures by Royal Skousen called “25 Years of Research: What We Have Learned About the Book of Mormon Text.” It took a while to get all of the requisite permissions, but we finally got the green light to post all three videos on our YouTube channel. The lecture series was also sponsored by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library.

Skousen is Professor of Linguistics and English Language at BYU. He has spent a quarter century meticulously studying the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. Since 1988, he’s followed every single stroke of the scribal pen to uncover–as nearly as possible–the earliest text of the sacred record. In 2001, the Maxwell Institute published the first two volumes of the project: Typographical facsimiles of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. In the first lecture, “The Original and Printers Manuscripts,” Skousen discussed the work which produced these priceless volumes. He was introduced by the Church’s assistant historian Richard Turley.